Premium Services Best Practices

Think about this: if you make 20 successful offers this weekend at £40 a pop – you could make £400 in 48 hours. And that’s not counting the original question earnings.

If you're not convinced yet, consider this: according to the trends we've observed, you should also see a considerable positive spike on your Achievements dashboard metrics. Why? Nearly every customer who accepts a premium service seems to be absolutely over-the-moon with his or her expert. We even had a person call Customer Care to try and give their Expert even more money, beyond what he had already paid for the premium service.

Now, before you go and fling an offer at the next customer you see, a word of caution: Premium Services must be offered carefully. There’s a way to offer services and make a lot of money, and there’s a way to offer services and waste your time.

We looked at the highest-converting, highest-paid Premium Services Experts across all categories, and they all seem to be using a three-step process:

Providing value with a thorough, well-thought-out answer.

Highlighting complexity of the problem to the customer.

Explaining the offer informally within the Q&A, then following up with an official offer.

That’s the basic flow that we’ve seen work well – now let’s get into a little more detail for each step.

Step 1: Provide value first

Keep in mind the customer’s perspective in these delicate initial stages – they just paid for an answer, and they want to get some value for that question before getting asked to pay again. Before you send the customer the Premium Services offer, engage with them to both build the relationship and understand the scope of their problem.

Consider providing a high-quality greeting that outlines your credibility. That’s crucial to showcasing the value they’re getting, as well as building your new relationship.

Example: “Hi there, I’m Bob, and I am a licenced family therapist. I see you’re asking about couple’s Counselling– I think I can help you, as I have over 20 years of experience in this area and have helped hundreds of couples to rekindle their relationships.”

While you’re following your normal process for giving a great answer, be on the lookout for signs of complexity. From what we’ve been seeing, questions that are highly complex appear to be the best candidates for a premium service, and we’ll show you why in just a second.

Step 2: Highlight the complexity of their question within your answer

So now you’ve given them a staggeringly awesome, thorough, complete answer that outlines all 27 steps of the task that could certainly be done DIY-style, by anyone with the time and motivation. So installing an operating system will take them several hours? Good!

Here’s the thing: In cases where the situation is complex, you actually want the customer to understand that what they are asking is a very complex thing that will take considerable time and effort to complete or understand, so that they immediately see the value in hiring you to help.

Example:

Step 3: Offer to ease their pain – informally first, then officially through the tool, treating the description of your service seriously

Once you’ve clearly demonstrated your value, a quick sentence at the end of your answer will be enough to get the ball rolling:

Example: “So those are all of the 27 steps needed to change out your operating system. I know that can be overwhelming, and I’m here to help – for a premium £100, I can have it up and running for you in a couple of hours. I know you're pressed for time. Would you rather do that?”

Imagine the customer’s relief, as you have likely felt yourself when a service is offered at the perfect moment. “YES!” they’re thinking. “Please do this awful task for me! I’ll pay whatever you want!” And now you’re closer to that £500 in weekend pocket money.

Even if the customer doesn’t have that YES reaction at first, the offer you send stays ever-present on their customer homepage, so treat the description as seriously as you would an answer, because the customer can come back and take the offer at any time.

The private information field only appears after a customer has accepted the offer for Premium Services - for both customers and professionals.

Many customers ask for a phone call immediately upon connecting with their Expert, but if they try to submit a phone number in the Q&A, it will appeared XX'ed out.

Let your customer know that they need to accept the Premium Service you've submitted (if you haven't submitted your offer, now would be a good time to do so) in order to exchange private contact information.